1] Oil by the barrel sets a new high daily!2] Fuel - Gasoline prices skyrocket!3] Transporting goods -trains, trucks, planes, buses [city, schools, and national tour buses] - feel the crunch and..4] Raise prices on everything, including the 1st piece of luggage for most airline traffic.5] In turn, we get the brunt of it as consumers! While the CEOs see a 300% profit!6] We are promised a tax rebate of $600 per individual to boost the economy!7] To spend for fun and frivolously? I think not...8] I can't wait to see how this all ends; if ever -probably not in my lifetime.9] I see an advertisement- "Wanna Sell your S U V? Good luck!!" And laugh at the humor but know it's darn well true to life!10] Fuel costs, food staples, electricity, propane, you name it...rises to record levels.11] You can't make your house payments...just the rich can sell/buy! Banks don't wanna loan out anything.12] Eventually no vacations--no filled hotels [I predict some will go belly-up this tourist season], no flight plans, no trips, nada!! For many. Others will just chalk it up to inflation and not care. Walking and/or biking looks like a last ditch effort.13] And yet our dear George says the economy will level out with the rebates. I want to see Congress fight back harder; it's dubious tho to see anything coming forth to help the economy/citizens...

More on the 'domino effect' -The COLA won't budge! In fact, if we're all lucky we'll get a 2% adjustment while the cost of living goes up 6% or more!! GO FIGURE!! Crime will rise, people are reported syphoning gas out of cars while others work to PAY for it. Food is stolen, purses/wallets are snatched and women/men are killed for $5.00 - people are in dire straits...we're all in this together, and we sit by ---

What's wrong with this picture?[I know, I know --it only goes up to 2007..hehehehe! I guess for 2008, it's too early to say? Who knows.]

- - -

NOW---

--through the eyes of an optimist:

A famous quote from the movie, "Network" [circa 1976]---Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.Howard Beale: [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,[shouting]Howard Beale: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

Are the oil company CEOs gonna listen to us?

<><><>

I refused to take this:

I must 'fess up. I respect and acknowledge that medical doctors [general practitioners in this case] have a higher education than I. But in some cases, their knowledge and know how when it comes to working with an individual [this case, me, the stubborn Irish lass!] doesn't always sit well. Sometimes I feel doctor's demeanor is more or less what I call 'educated dummy'. And I know a lot of physicians personally, I have worked with them in the medical field. I'm not calling them dummies, I'm just thinking in the terms of their education and knowledge of the field in which they earned their degree, but still don't know much on a personal level and how to work with a patient on a one to one basis...as an individual, instead of a meal ticket. Who else knows my body more than I? No one.

You see, three months ago I had to go in for my quarterly blood work. My cholesterol level was high. What she calls "too high" and that I'm "considered high risk" when it comes to health of the heart. Okay, yes, I smoke. She tried to bait me into taking a medication for that, to get me to stop. Tobacco is technically an herb...as is licorice candy and tea and coffee. Is coffee consumption a killer too? Probably, if you drink too much of it. Thing is, that shows me --again, stubborn --that shows me that I'd be taking another drug to counteract with another drug! And there is always a large potential of side effects of which I'm totally fearing because of what happened to me before with drugs.

While having the heart problems this past twelve years, the one particular med just up and decided to quit working for me. Then, the cardiologist put me on a new med. That one was lethal. I had tons of side effects and a larger potential of dying from the side effects [at one point I thought I was a goner!] than the SVT I experienced off and on for the dozen years! Three out of three cardiologists said that SVT is not life-threatening, but still needed to be controlled. TWO of them suggested the ablation. While the 3rd one...which I'd been seeing on a regular basis here in Texas, thought I'd be 'cured' with medication instead.

WRONG!! I was in the E R from nightmarish reactions to his 'cure all' drug. Lethal, I'll tell you. Lethal.

I had the ablation. I, in fact, threatened to do a referral myself to get a specialist. Well, to keep a long story getting much longer, I don't see HIM any more. But I still continue to see my primary care physician. One thing...I refused to take any more drugs. I said no to Zocor! Period!

She gave me three months to lower my high cholesterol. [of course little did she know that I would still refuse even after the three months time!] But I changed my diet. I went from a high meat diet --fatty foods, to nearly a total vegan diet. I will eat fish or a small piece of chicken about once a week. [okay, I did have a steak and shrimp for our 40th anniversary] That's all. From there, it's vegetarian all the way.

Friday, had my blood test. Drs. office calls and says the blood work results were back and the cholesterol dropped by 20 and the LDL [bad cholesterol was better than perfect!] For me personally, I had no doubt in my mind it'd work! And I said: "See, y'all don't know everything!"

And to make another statement, smoking may be harmful, yes I'm sure. But so are prescribed drugs, or alcohol consumption, getting into your car and driving the streets, or even getting out of bed or a slippery shower.

- - -

Again, I'm probably blabbing away, but like Sandy said on HER blog, "It's my blog"...I like her thinking!

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Wow. This one really made me think! I can't wait for Bush to be out of there!

Also, I think you're really smart in choosing to change your diet over taking the meds.....my parents have had similar experiences and now do what they can to eat a more balanced diet....it seems to be helping without the cholesterol meds.

as far as the oil prices and thje CEO'S seeing 300% profit.well to quote a movie "Greed is Good" not to mention having a president that is owned by one certain oil producing country,where the price of a gallon of gas is ready for this $0.35.

Nice take on TT, Anni. I agree with you that there are times when we have to take control of our own health. I also feel that I know my body better than any doctor does. I don't take cholesterol medication either.

Aside from some higher prices, where I live, in a resort community, we're seeing the other side of the high oil prices - a heck of a lot of people who earn their living some way or another via black gold. It is boom times here.

They have so much money to spend. I have a friend who owns a high end jewelry business. They can't buy her stuff fast enough.

Gas prices are outrageous...I am trying to drive less...and blog more :)I had carpal tunnel surgery scheduled and then my friend from teenage years, who is an anesthesit, suggested I visit a neurologist...who didn't find any blockade... Doctors! They can drive you crazy!!

Dear Anni ~~ Thank you so much for the birthday wishes and I had a really nice time this year and Ienjoyed it a lot. I find I amquite content at this stage of my life. My blogging friends are a big part of that enjoyment and I have had many, many wishes and several e cards. I enjoyed your blog about the gas prices and can tell you that in Australia we pay between $6 and $7 a gallon. It is #1,69 a litre so I am glad that I no longerdrive. Take care, my friend,Love, Merle.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole post! Great job and great choice with your doctor. Doctors also push whatever drug manufacturing companies are paying to have pushed. WTG on getting your diet changed and your cholesterol lowered!

Great post..i agree with taking control of your own health. I hate taking medicine, i'd much rather be practicing preventitive medicine..than having to fix stuff after the damage is already done. Im glad you did what was right for you :-)

Well. The pessimist side certainly WAS pessimistic! I'm not sure the OPTIMIST side was MUCH better though! But I DO remember that scene (yep! from back in the days when i DID watch movies!) ... I also remember that becoming the catch phrase of the YEAR that year! I don't know how much good it did. I do believe the only way that the oil companies are going to feel our pain is if we DO cut back our gasoline consumption. And we WILL! Cuz we'll be forced to! :)

Anni, you are as hard-headed as I am ANY day of the week! And I DO agree with NOT taking that medication to quit smoking.

*Thanks Melli! I just have a huge phobia anymore of any kind of drug Rx!!

I don't think biking is a last resort. I've been pitching the reasons why we should bike more for a long time now. If only we had the infrastructure to support bicycles sharing the roads with cars, I'd probably leave my car home a lot more often than I do now!

Wow! A very thought-provoking post! And I agree with almost all of it, except the smoking part. My mother spent two weeks in the hospital -- scaring all of us who love her and still need her -- because of pneumonia exacerbated by COPD, due to cigarettes. Ani, people love you! Please consider those "stop smoking" meds for their sake. I'm speaking as a Gal who had to spend Mother's Day with her Mother in the hospital and wearing an oxygen mask. (Thanks for visiting my TT)

That's a lot of writin' and readin', Annie! Two thoughts: 1) at a dinner party the other night the conversation got around to high price of oil, then some interesting discussion about what that might mean over time--maybe a return to small town/neighborhood America where all the services we need are close by, which wouldn't be bad. About the health issue, I do take Zocor, with no side effects as far as I know, but I also have added fish oil, which has reduced my numbers even more. I plan to ask the doc if it makes sense to discontinue the Zocor for three months, keeping the fish oil, and see where that takes the numbers. Should be interesting.

Great TT. I think that we need services to move into our neighbourhoods so we can walk to buy groceries, get meds etc. At one time I could have walked to downtown from here and shopped at Kresge's, Metropolitan and Woolworths, but the big malls came in at the other end of town and put the little chain stores out of business. The rent for a store in a mall is atrocious and so the price is passed to the consumer. No nickel and dimes left anymore. We need to rethink our way of doing business.

I don't blame you for taking more meds. I'm on way too many as well.

A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of warm water each morning before breakfast will keep your cholesterol in check and clean any plaque out of your arteries.

The doctors today frown on any type of natural remedy. That is what kept my grandmother's children alive. My paternal grandmother burned sulphur on the woodstove when the plague came through here in 1920. She was the only mother on the street that didn't lose a child. So the remedies are there, we have just forgotten how to use them.

Now I'll get off my soapbox Anni. Glad your cholesterol is back to normal. Keep up the good work, my friend and have a wonderful day.

Great list! This pessimist is right there with you. Won't be surprised by much of anything anymore. 600 bucks is going to stabilize the economy? Puh-lease! Where did that money come from anyway? Happy TT

Wow, Anni...lots of food for thought. I personally wish we could lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Do we really have no oil resources on our own land? Of course we all need to conserve in whatever way we can. It looks like some belt-tightening is in order.

Anni, your TT13 post is great! But I was most interested in the Zocor, heart problems and smoking. Here's my happy story and I promise I will not tell you once to stop smoking!

3+ years ago I quit smoking - I'm glad I did - but a year ago I stopped taking Lipitor and then Zetia all to control cholseterol because it seems they caused terrible pain in my muscles all over my body... When I quit smoking I went to a hospital run program that combined nicotine replacement and support in the form of a support group. Tomorrow I am going to receive an award for working for the program (I volunteered after a time to run the support group and still do today) at a luncheon celebrating "Tobacco Control Champions." Isn't that something? I'm very proud of myself! :D

Hey Anni - where did you get the graph? I realized that it almost exactly replicates the introduction of credit cards (1964) which became readily available in 1983. Mid 1980s began the era of spending without any means of paying - for individuals and the gov't. I wondered how oil/gas and credit were linked so I thought I'd ask about the reference.

I remember going to see the movie "Network" at the theater and how much I wanted to stick my head out the car window and yell that out when on my way home! lol Even more so now...as you say, the domino effect is in full swing and people have seen nothing yet. It's just going to get worse until something is done. June & I went for coffee today and we were talking about just that...how tourism will greatly suffer, as well as everything else. On the radio this morning they were saying that swimming pool sales are up quite a bit because people can no longer afford a camp or to go away. So, it's stay home and enjoy the pool!

I don't blame you for not taking that medication...you would not believe the meds I was given to take for my anxiety/agoraphobia that made me feel worst or almost killed me with their side effects! Sheesh! When the side effects are worse than what ails you, well, gee, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what to do! lol A change in diet can do wonders for sure...good going girl:-) xoxo

We're at $1.29 a litre here in London, Ontario. It's enough to make a grown woman cry. I'm really hoping my daughter gets the summer job she's interviewing for tomorrow as it's only a block away - that'll save on gas. I'm trying hard to cut down on driving and I emptied out my trunk to make the car lighter. I'm open to more ideas!